Rached Jaïdane: victim of torture

17.05.2016 ( Last modified: 24.10.2018 )

Rached Jaïdane

Wrongly suspected of inciting an attack against the party in power, Rached Jaïdane, a former political opponent, was arrested in Tunisia in 1993.

Among the acts of cruelty that he suffered during his detention, Rached Jaïdane was punched, kicked and beaten with truncheons all over his body; he was subjected to the “roast chicken” method of torture, sexual abuse, electrocution and waterboarding; his nails were ripped off and his fingers crushed. He was only released in February 2006 after 13 years of torture and abuse in Tunisian prisons.

Rached Jaïdane approached the national justice system in 2011. Although his complaint led to a trial being opened, the verdict rendered in 2015 shattered all the victim’s hopes: all of the accused were acquitted apart from the former President Ben Ali, who was sentenced to a five-year prison term – a sentence that he has never served.

In January 2015, TRIAL International and ACAT-France submitted a complaint on Rached Jaïdane’s behalf to the United Nations Committee against Torture. The two NGOs demanded a new investigation into the torture to which Rached Jaïdane was subjected, as well as appropriate reparation. The case is currently pending.

“It’s high time to put an end to impunity and to meet the expectations created by the Revolution. Building a State based on the rule of law means that investigations into serious violations of human rights must be carried out diligently, trials must be conducted in a serious and impartial manner, and justice must be brought to Rached Jaïdane as well as to numerous other victims,” insisted Philip Grant, Director of TRIAL International.

On 4 October 2018 in Tunis, the first hearing on the Jaïdane case in the context of the transitional justice process opened. Due to a magistrates’ social movement, the Chamber postponed the hearing only 45 minutes after it had begun, and in spite of the presence of 5 accused.